First
by BaseballisMyTrueLove
Summary: There are a lot of firsts in life, first birthday, first kiss, first prom... Ponyboy experiences first romantic love. Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Hello! I just wanted to let everyone know that the first few chapters will be a bit iffy until we get to the actual main plot. I hope that the fact that the first few chapters will be not so good, will not turn you away._

 _I'm sorry for making Darry so OVER-PROTECTIVE, I figured that after Johnny and Dally died, that he would have became more protective if that makes any sense?_

 _Characters may also be out of character sometimes, I'm sorry._

 _I am very sorry for my horrible grammar/spelling, English is not my first language, and the word pad I am using does not have spell check._

 _However, I will do my best to make it readable for you guys :)_

 _Thank you so much for reading, and I hope all of you have a fantastic day :)_

* * *

"Happy birthday!" Everyone exclaimed as Darry walked out carrying a cake with sixteen candles on it.

The cake wasn't fancy, it was just your run of the mill, oven baked chocolate cake, but I loved it.

"This is great, thanks everyone." I said with a smile, I could feel warm fuzziness ignite through my chest, I was so glad that they took the time to do this for me, it meant a lot.

"Well, this is a very special occasion, my baby brother is finally the big one six." Sodapop, my middle brother, said, clapping his hand over my shoulder.

"So Pony, are you thinking about getting your license?" Two-Bit asked.

"Don't give him any ideas." Darry, my oldest brother, said sternly. However, I could tell by the look in his eyes, that he knew Two-Bit was joking, and that he was returning with a joke of his own.

Darry is usually very strict and somber, it was nice to see him relax a little.

After everyone sang a round of happy birthday, I blew out the candles, I wished that my parents, Johnny, and Dally could be here for this.

"Great! Now it's time for cake." Two-Bit exclaimed, licking his lips. Two-Bit loves cake, he even eats it for breakfast sometimes.

"This birthday boy gets the first piece." Darry said, slapping Two-Bit's hand away when he reached for the cake.

"Oh yea." Two-Bit said with a sheepish blush, causing everyone to start laughing around the table.

After everyone had eaten a slice of cake, Darry walked out of the room, and came back with a large box.

"What is that?" I questioned, usually on our birthdays, we could only afford small presents, like new shoes, and maybe a new book for me.

"Open it, it's from all of us." Soda said with a mischevious grin.  
I studied the box carefully, wondering what it could be, I doubt it was a book unless it was a huge book, or if they had decided to buy out the whole library or something.

"Well, the present it's going to open itself." Two-Bit cracked out with a slight laugh.

"I'm openin it, I'm openin it." I said with half amusement, and half annoyance, Two-Bit could be pretty impatient sometimes.

I opened the box, and what I saw, made my heart skip a few beats. Inside was a state of the art dark green mountain bike.

"Whoa." I said, feeling speechless. Most sixteen year olds would have expected a car on their birthday or something, most sixteen year olds would have threw a fit over getting a bike.

I'm not most sixteen year olds.  
"Whoa! I love it! Thank you all!" I exclaimed running over to hug all of them.

"You're welcome, we also got you these." Darry said, presenting a helmet and pads.

"Aw, but I won't look tuff wearing these." I said.

"You also won't look tuff if you're dead, now wear these or no riding your bike." Darry said sternly.

"Okay, I'll do it." I grumbled. However, after taking another look at my bike, happiness exploded in my chest, making all other feelings disappear.

"Well, are you going to try it out?" Soda asked after a few minutes of awkward silence.

"Heck yes!" I exclaimed, grabbing my bike by the handle bar and wheeling it towards the door.

"Not without protection you're not." Darry said, holding the helmet out to me.

"I know." I said with a sigh, taking it from his outstretched hand, and putting it over my head.

I felt free on the bike as the wind whipped through my hair, I felt alive. I loved it.

"Be careful!" Darry called out, breaking me out of my sense of bliss.

I slowed down a little, and turned the bike around, bringing back onto the lawn.

"Can I have a go?" Two-Bit asked.

"Sure." I said with a shrug.

In the end, everyone, even Darry took a turn on the bike. Afterwards, we spent another hour talking, and then, Two-Bit went home.

Steve didn't come to my party, which I didn't really mind, we were never really that close. I think he saw me as more of an annoyance than as a friend.

I was about to walk back into the house, when something, or rather, someone caught my eye. Standing in the yard of the house across from me was a girl. She appeared to be about my age, she looked to be about average height, and she had wavy, reddish brown hair that reached her collar bone, her eyes were grey, and they had a very determined look to them. I also noticed that her leg was in a brace, and that she was using crutches.

However, the thing that stood out the most to me was the fact that as soon as I saw her, my heart seemed to stop, and start beating rapidly at the same time. It was like everything around me had just disappeared, and all that was left in the world was me and her.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Ponygirlrunner25: Thank you :) I will try to make the next chapters longer :)_

 _Tiger: Aw thank you :). That is a fantastic idea! I will definately do that._

 _Amanda: Thank you :)_

 _I am so happy you all liked it :)_

* * *

I yawned and stretched as I opened my eyes, when I turned my head, I was nearly blinded by the morning sun streaming through my window.

As I adjusted to waking up, my mind drifted back to the events of last night, the party, everyone gathered together and happy, the bike, _her._

I blushed slightly as I thought about her, I couldn't remember ever having a reaction like that before.

Where had she come from? I wondered, I had never seen her before. Did she just move here?

I wondered if I should go over there and talk to her, or if that would be awkward, was it normal for her to have random boys show up on her doorstep?

It turned out, that I didn't have long to ponder it, because I then heard a knock on the door. I quickly scrambled out of bed to go answer it before it woke Soda up, he had work later, and he needed all of the sleep he could get.

When I opened the door, my breath hitched in my throat, standing there was the girl from last night! She had a white bowl with blue decorations in one hand, and she was balancing on a crutch with her other hand.

I stood there, open-mouthed like an idiot, not knowing what to do or say. My mind was telling me to say hello, to invite her in, but my body was saying to stand there like an idiot.

"Um, hello? Are you okay?" The girl asked as she tilted her head to look at me.

"If you're worried about the food, it's not poisoned, my mother said that I should give a welcoming gift to all of my neighbours." She then said.

"N-No, it's not that, uh, thanks for the food." I said, taking the bowl from her hands and quickly shutting the door in her face.

Uh! I am so stupid! I berated myself as soon as I did that, she probably thought I was a no good jerk now.

I took a deep breath, and re-opened the door,

"Is everyone here as friendly as you?" The girl asked, I could tell by the way her brows were furrowed together, and the tone of her voice, that she did not think I was friendly, not one little bit.

"I'm sorry, I'm not really allowed to have strangers in the house when my brothers are asleep or away." I said uneasily.

"Oh well, then maybe I should introduce myself, my name is Amelia Graves, I just moved in a couple of days ago." She said.

 _Amelia. Amelia._ Her name rang through my mind like a sweet melody.

"I think it's customary to tell me your name." She said.

"Oh, uh, sorry, my name is Ponyboy, Ponyboy Curtis." I said.

"Is that your...real name?" She asked with her brow raised.

"Yea, it is believe it or not, I even have a brother named Sodapop." I said, finding it slightly easier to talk to this girl.

"You have a brother? I have a brother too, his name is Arnold." She said with a smile.

"I have two actually, both older, Soda is eighteen, and Darry is twenty-two." I said, returning her smile.

"Arnold and I are twins, we're both sixteen." Amelia said as she shifted slightly on her crutch.

"I'm sixteen too, I just had my birthday yesterday, would you like to come in?" I asked.

"Sure, that'd be great, thank you." She said.

I nodded and led her over to the couch,

"Happy belated birthday." She said after she sat down.

"Thank you." I said as I felt a blush heat up my cheeks.

I was about to sit down, when I heard a door open,

"Ponyboy, who's this? I thought you knew not to let people into the house before myself or Soda had a chance to meet them too." Darry said as he walked into the living room.

"Amelia, she's our new neighbour." I said with slight irritation, why did Darry have to treat me like such a kid? I should be able to invite friends over without running it by my older brothers first.

"Okay, I guess she can stay, for a little while, but next time you want to invite your little girlfriend over, please run it by Soda or I first." He said with a sigh.

"She's not my-"I began to say, but he had already left the room before I had a chance to finish.

"Well, now I know where you get your pleasantries from." Amelia said with a snort as she stood up.

"It's not like that, Darry's just in a bad mood or something." I said with a shrug.

Amelia opened her mouth, when Soda suddenly strode into the room.

"Well, well, well, Darry told me but I just didn't believe it, Pony's got himself a little girlfriend." He said with amusement.

Oh gosh, I thought to myself as I felt myself die a little inside with embarassment.

"Be quiet." I said softly, I could imagine that my whole face was red.

"You know, Pony's never had a girlfriend before." Soda said. I groaned, I wanted to sink down in the floor and disappear forever, why was Soda acting like such a jerk? I would have expected this from Two-Bit, but not from him. I would have to discuss it with him later.

"You must be Sodapop, I'm Amelia." Amelia said, apparently not at all bothered by Soda calling her my girlfriend.

"Nice to meet you Amelia, I'd love to stay and chat, but I must go to another day of hard labour, a working man's day is never done." Soda said with a sigh before he went out the door.

"I'm sorry about that whole thing, you know, him calling you my girlfriend and all." I said.

"Oh that?" Amelia said with a small laugh,

"Don't worry about it, I have a brother too, and all he does is tease me about having a boyfriend whenever I just mention a guy from school."

"Soda's usually cool, I guess he was just shocked, sometimes shock can make you act differently." I said with a shrug.

"He does seem really nice." Amelia said as she sat back down on the couch. As I turned around to go sit down on the couch as well, I caught my reflection in the window. I almost died at what I saw, I was still in my pajamas, and parts of my hair was standing straight up.

Shoot, Amelia probably thought I was a total loser before I even muddled things up with my whole, slamming the door in her face, thing.

"I'll be right back." I said before dashing into my room, and quickly pulling on a dark green sweater with a pair of blue jeans. After that, I rushed to the bathroom, and fixed my hair in the usual style.

"That was fast, it usually takes my brother about an hour to get ready, then again, he takes longer than I do, it only takes me about thirty minutes. I think you just set the world record for the shortest time it took to get ready." Amelia said in one breath before turning bright red.

"I'm sorry, I ramble a little when I'm nervous." She said as she played with a loose thread on the couch.

"Why are you nervous?" I asked, she seemed really confident earlier, I wondered what had changed.

"Just meeting all of these new people I guess." She said with a small laugh.

"So uh, where did you move from?" I asked as I sat down on the couch, making sure there was a good sized, but not awkward, distance between us.

"Comanche, it's southwest of here." She said.

"What's it like there?" I asked.

"Well, to be honest, there's not much to do there, it's really small, there's a lot of farm land, my closest neighbour was a pretty good hike away. You know, I don't think I ever learned anything about them. It feels so weird, having your neighbours in such close proximity, I mean, you could just step outside, take a couple of steps, and the next thing you know, you're in someone else's yard." She said.

"That's a really interesting thought." I said.  
"So, did you have any horses?" I asked as I thought about the horse that Soda used to have.

"No, my mother thought it would be too dangerous because of-" She gestured down at her leg.

"What happened? Did you get into an accident or something?" I asked.

"Polio happened, when I was eleven." She said.

"Why didn't you get vaccinated?" I asked.

"Well, by the time we could afford it, it was too late." She said.

"Oh, I'm sorry." I said, I couldn't imagine being stricken with such a horrible illness.

"Don't be, I'm used to it, also it gives me an excuse not to participate in gym." Amelia said.

"Anyway, I better get going now, my mother is probably wondering where I am." She then said as she stood up.

"Wait, I thought you said your mother told you to come greet your new neighbours." I said.

"Actually, I said that she said that I should bring a welcoming gift to all of my neighbours, however, that was a lie, I just wanted an excuse to come talk to you. I have wanted to for the past few days, but I never really had the nerve." Amelia said with a light blush.

My heart started to beat rapidly in my chest, did Amelia just say that she had been wanting to talk to me, that she had been afraid to talk to me?  
"What got you over your nervousness?" I asked.

"Seeing you in your pajamas, it's always been said once you see someone not in their best, you see the true them, or something like that." Amelia said with a laugh.

"Well, I better get going now, it was nice meeting you." She said.  
"It was nice meeting you too." I said. I watched her back as she walked to her house, after she was inside, I turned around and went back into my own house, with a million thoughts running through my head.


End file.
